The Long Game, Lucas Sinclair

031. me, an empath

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.
3x07: The Bite

The majority of the room stared at Sam, watching the similarities between she and El carefully. They both had blood running down their noses, and both had gone into the mindscape together.

But it was Sam who had gotten stuck in there. It was Sam who was panting at a pace that seemed like she was still on the brink of a panic attack.

"I'm—I'm sorry, Sam," El apologized, in the clutches of Max and Will. "I meant to get you out—"

"No." Sam shook her head quickly, in the clutch of Lucas, who had Corey and Mike hounding behind them. She was weak—not in the way she had been in the void, but because she had exhausted too much energy. "No, it's my fault. I shouldn't... I shouldn't have offered to go in there with you. Not for my first time. I ruined everything."

Lucas shook his head. "You didn't, Sam."

Sam choked out a dry sob.

"I did, I—I really did," she rasped. "You guys didn't hear Billy, okay? I... It all went wrong."

Jonathan rushed out of the kitchen, handing both girls glasses of water. Nancy gave them wet washcloths to wipe the blood off their noses. Sam accepted both things gratefully with a croaky thank you.

"I don't understand," El sniffed after she wiped her nose off. "That's never happened before."

"What even happened though?" Will asked, which was a fair question.

Sam chugged all the water down in one gulp, earning concerned stares from her friends, because she'd never done that once in her life. Actually, they made fun of her for drinking and eating so slow.

She shakily set the glass down before meeting everyone's expecting eyes again.

"I think the emotions from Billy's memories were making you weak," El said, much calmer than Sam. "All of the pain hurt you. The void was never safe for you."

"I don't know what it was," Sam said miserably.

Lucas began shifting up from their spot on the floor, and before Sam could question why, he muttered, "Come on. You should sit on the couch."

So he helped Sam up, with Mike and Corey also coming to her aid, and sat her down on the couch where Max was. Max could now see the wet tear tracks running down her face at the close proximity.

"When I took the blindfold off... I was here, but... but no one else was," Sam began, recalling the traumatic events that had passed. "I was alone, until B-Billy—he came out of El's room. He said that 'they' can see me, and that El let him in, so I have to let them stay... He also said he was building something. That it was all for me and El."